


Shards of Fate

by The_Pocky_Princess



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Child AU, Child to Teen, Childrens home, Fantasy, M/M, Orphanage, Sad, Supernatural - Freeform, lots of feels
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-07-25
Updated: 2016-07-25
Packaged: 2018-07-26 16:00:51
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,238
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7580764
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_Pocky_Princess/pseuds/The_Pocky_Princess
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>I've wanted to write something about this idea for a while and just wasn't sure about it, but screw it. I wanna give it a shot! This will probably end up being a small collection of chapters, but I couldn't help myself for some cute childish feels leading into teen life. <3</p>
            </blockquote>





	Shards of Fate

The Smith Home for Gifted Children.

Just fancy lettering for children not wanted; the outcast, the forgotten. The ones that society recoils at the very thought of-  
The kind they think are only in fantasy novels. Oh, but how wrong they are.

They live here now, children like that. A home far in the countryside- where nobody will suspect anything other than a quaint old building to house children without homes...

They'll never know.

The Braun child; small and stocky but already showing signs of extreme levels of strength. It fluctuates- as all powers do as children. One moment is perfectly normal grip, and the next he is crushing a wooden block between his fingers, or breaking a friends arm. He cannot be blamed; the blonde boy cannot control it, not yet.  
He doesn't stand out; he's the more normal of anyone here to look at. Aged 11, he's a little on the shorter side, but his blonde strands of hair make him quite a sweet little thing. Long as he isn't gripping your hand at any time.

Now he runs freely through the wide corridors; filled with other children just like him. Playing, laughing and talking as per usual. Between their bedrooms and just having a fun time like children do. They don't have to worry, not yet, about anything other than growing up in time and having fun until then. He however wanted to see someone new; a new boy had been brought in this morning- he'd heard the discussion, his room is directly over Mr Smith's office after all, he can't help but earwig a little!

He had the end room, the one with a darkly coloured door. It's been empty since Reiner can remember, and now the new kid had it. It's a little different to all the other rooms, it's the one with the round window and the tower- the clocktower. It's hollow, other than the clock face, but it's pretty cool he guessed.

Reiner almost runs head first into the door just thinking about it- but manages to stop just as the toes as his shoes reach the bottom of the door, and raising a knuckle to tap at the door.  
A little harder than he wanted- but as usual that's impulse and not yet controlled.

The door comes open from the force of the knock alone; only gently though. he hadn't broken it, luckily.  
"Uh...H-hey! Sorry about the door- I uh...A little too strong, aha..." He starts, a little awkward. he doesn't know this new child; but soon finds himself looking up at a figure perched by the wound window. Thick brown hair with a middle parting, and in the light coming from the large glass space, freckles were made evident.

"It's okay, and hi." he smiles though, voice kind and still pitched, slowly turning to drop down from the ledge of the window space and come to see Reiner properly, now standing a little taller than the blonde boy.

"Hey! My name's Reiner, Reiner Braun. And uh, you are?"

"Marco- My name is Marco. Bodt. That is." He smiles, and there's something almost sad about his expression, despite it meaning to be happy.

"So uh..." Reiner scratches the back of his shaggy blonde head, thinking how to approach this topic."You...You look really normal so, what'd you get put in here for? N-not that normal is a bad thing! If you are I mean!"

"Don't worry about it." Marco laughs a little at Reiner's slightly awkward stance on all of this,"It's because of my back. It's uh, not normal. I don't control it yet, though so yeah. Can't really show you."

"I get it- none of us can control it all yet. S'why I kinda knocked your door open. I'm a little too strong sometimes... Anyway- uh, you wanna meet some other kids? You could make some cool friends." Reiner smiles, and nods his head in the direction of the corridor, pacing backwards a little.

"Sure, that'd be nice." Marco grins, but settles back to his slightly smiling expression to head out, following Reiner's steps between the chaos of the other kids around the place, and arrives at a red door.

"Oi! Pyro! You in there?" Reiner laughs, hearing the stroppy footsteps coming racing to the doorway, and is quickly met with a very unimpressed boy staring into his eyes.

"DON'T call me PYRO!" He roars, and his hands seem to tremble.

"Heh." Reiner just grins,"So uh, Marco, this is Jean. He's a Pyro boy!"

"I am not! I just make firey stuff. Stupid knucklehead." He huffs, pouting over the topic, but his eyes rest on Marco, who just smiles and holds out his hand to shake Jean's.

"woah, your hand is so warm..."

"Well no duh, I do fire stuff." Jean rolls his eyes, taking his hand back and leaning on the doorframe."Seen babybrain yet? Don't think he's come out of his room for like 3 days dude."

"Don't call him that." Reiner huffs, but shakes his head,"We can check." He adds, now moving further to the other end of the hall, where there are far less children and it's substantially quieter. There's a black door here, which Reiner takes care to knock on gently."Bertholdt? You in here? There's a new boy that wants to see you..." He speaks softly as his straight forwardness would allow him to, and he is met with a fairly dusky room, bed in the far corner of the place and a boy sat on the blankets there, wrapped up in them, and just staring into space.

"Is he...is he okay?"

"Yeah, he just goofs off sometimes." Reiner heads in, putting a hand on his friend's shoulder to give him a little shake, and he does snap back into reality.

"O-oh...Hey..."

"Hey Bert, this is Marco! He's kinda a normie too like you. Sorta. He's cool so uh...be friends, 'kay? I want you to come play with us sometime." Reiner smiles, but Bertholdt's expression loomed empty and sad, with the undertone of a lack of sleep."So...uh yeah. That's my friends n'stuff. People are kinda nice here though so you'll fit in fine..." Reiner shrugs in Marco's direction, who seems interested in the posture and expression of Bertholdt, and seems to share the same sad expression for a moment, if only to empathize.

"Bertholdt..." He mutters, and the other doesn't turn to respond."You...You see things, don't you? Scary things." And this time, the boy turns- looking shocked to have been figured out, but he nods, violently almost. Fast and unrestrained, excited maybe?

"Y-Yes... I...I see death- and I see birth...and the end of everything...I don't dream, I see the world end of start." he adds, and Marco nods slowly, Reiner seemingly surprised at all this.

"Really? Damn...That's...really kinda cool."

"It's not, Reiner...How would you like to watch your best friend die? Or see the world be destroyed?" Marco responds, and Bertholdt just nods in the background. "I doubt he can sleep seeing it all."

He hadn't thought of it like that, what it would be like. But it was all just make believe anyway, right? he'd grow out of it or something.

"Yeah, sorry..." Reiner shrugs a little, and, with his metaphorical tail between his legs, slowly takes his leave from the dark room.


End file.
